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@Monicamcs Күн бұрын
You hate Acotar, Fourth Wing, From Blood and Ash… all books I really enjoyed. We have opposite taste haha
@Wondermazement24 3 күн бұрын
Coming back to this review after finishing reading the book, and I can tell that the arc copies are a bit different than the published text. Your points about the repetitiveness, the excess of metaphors, and flatness of side characters (although I feel like it’s probably not as bad as before) still stand, and the time skip still annoys me, but I think the book is still ok. Not a five star read for me, more like 2.75-3 stars, but I feel like most of the issues of the book could just be solved by having more artist development. I see how this book could be great if the author was able to do more rewrites and was edited more rigorously. I think this book is kind of indicative of the industry’s current problem of wanting social clout from diverse books, but not putting in the resources into actually developing the story.
@Allison35086 4 күн бұрын
I did not know this started as a TikTok sketch but this explains a lot of the problems I had with this book. The characters and world are underdeveloped. The book gives you no reasons to support the Villain early on and you don't learn enough about the king to dislike him until the very end.
@Moonsoap33 5 күн бұрын
I dislike the idea that no book deserves zero stars, especially when there are books like Mein Kampf out there.
@hoykfnvnnesnxnnensncjforkx1616 7 күн бұрын
When it comes to red white and royal blue. Im sick of seeing gay men stories by non gay men. Im sick of seeing lesbian books by non lesbians. Its annoying. I now always look up the authors. So many lgbt books now are gross when not done by the people it is talking about
@Lucifersfursona 9 күн бұрын
As someone whose special interests include the dissection of media literacy with regards to colonizer apologetics, *_WHERE CAN I SEE THE PANEL. PLEASE._* if it is money that is alright 🥲 I must see It will help me yell at my enemies through the power of the written word Edit it deleted like 7 notes I’m gonna SCREAM. Ugh I’ll get them later i will be watching this again. 38:37 “I will stand by that you are meant to feel bad for royal colonizer, that he genuinely cares for colonized love interest, that he feels pain and hurt for the way that he betrayed her, that we don’t have the full story of royal colonizer, that the victim of systemic genocide is “cold” or “cruel” more so than the invader torturing their people and squatting on their homelands, because they cried over the possibility of losing their captured romance object”
@Lucifersfursona 9 күн бұрын
*_IT’S ALWAYS MORE INSIDIOUSLY ENDORSING OF COLONIZER ROMANCE IN YA. IT’S ALWAYS YA_*
@Lucifersfursona 9 күн бұрын
Would you believe it is a step UP from where I’ve been and what I’ve been stewing in that the colonizer is being framed as a villain at all Would you believe there’s mainstream liberal stuff that just straight up frames the colonizers as the heroes I mean like yeah in non fandom spaces people do have a pretty easy time believing that. Angre
@Lucifersfursona 9 күн бұрын
I’m keeping this “how could the colonizer monarch LIE TO ME?!” is a thing im keeping for a scene in my own works. That is so horrible. Just a person you trusted with your life for years saying to you with his whole chest that he “can’t believe” his queen monarch fiancée would LIE to HIM her wubby about how she and the imperial church could continue her mother’s eugenics and massacring raids. Like. What do you mean you can’t believe it? You sat with us, eating threadbare rations scoured from our scorched over land that you have seen our peers shot down trying to gather, in a shelter we have rebuilt and rebuilt out of less and less as we are destroyed and burned away by this empire, you have heard our voices grow hopeless, you have sat silent and oddly disinterested in whether or not there were moles feeding the monarchy our locations, our plans of resistance and the ways we have been trying to secure the most basic of resources for our siblings, comrades, peers, ourselves- you watched our grief devour us. You have watched us die. You have held our heaving shoulders as we have bent over our dead and screamed. You can’t *_believe_* the heir of the empire that has done this and more and has made explicit its entire existence that it will never stop and that we will always be monsters to them, when we greeted their first ships in our ports with open arms, with curiosity, when they attacked first without question and forced us to resist or die… because you LOVE her?! She “loves” you?! Please I am begging you tell me you have been possessed, you are under a spell, she has done something that is more substantial than opening herself to you. That is not a reason. That cannot be your reason to have betrayed us all. I am trying to uhh “write” “more” bc idk how long you’re supposed to work on something but this is barely ready to exit first stages of development and it’s been seven years. So it’s like. Exponentially more annoying when people churn out colonizer romances without thinking about what has to be spat on to smush two people together who cannot by the definitions of one member of the relationship EVER be equally seen as human. Like no this is not a mixed relationship in a slowly healing even a still infected wound. The wound is still actively being made by one member of the relationship.
@Lucifersfursona 9 күн бұрын
“By the end of [this story] I just felt … sick.” HARD SAME
@GooseEnthused 10 күн бұрын
* harry potter intro begins playing *
@jezzarte3587 10 күн бұрын
i just discovered you with this and i have fallen in love with your personality! your laugh at the ridiculous parts is hilarious
@Lillibet_Lems 16 күн бұрын
Agree so hard with you!!
@Elly_Rose 17 күн бұрын
I regret spending my money and time on these books. At one point, listening to the audiobook, I found myself disassociating in the middle of a ONE-HOUR dialogue between Poppy and some other guy. I DNFed it right then and there because... one hour! of pure dialogue!!!
@Fearizthemindkiller 17 күн бұрын
That’s exactly how I felt! I did a quick read of it a few days before a book club meeting and you hit the nail on the head about the “non rules” of her magic. I tend to be a rule person. The book made me uneasy in that way. It was fast paced and dark with her war angst, but it was well written and closed well.
@carla6485 18 күн бұрын
I'm late to the Babel commentary, but I just read the book for the first time, and I agree with and share the love for the first half. I like how it's laying the foundation for Robin's conflicted feelings and actions. My personal issue with the story was, as is for many others, the telling instead of showing and how that affected, as you well said, the impact of the story. I think that Hermes as a secret society could've been handled way better and the ending was an overload of things but at the same time very dragged. RF Kuang could've given us pov moments of Griffin on missions and when all the characters go to Canton the stay could've been longer and more enriched with Chinese culture. Would've been cool if they had discovered a Hermes ally or secrete hideout in Canton to give it more weight. Overall a good story but the execution wasn't very polished.
@caitlinfoster9508 20 күн бұрын
Gosh this review is satisfying 😂
@dreamhobbit 23 күн бұрын
I’ve been chewing on Minor Detail for months. For such a short book, there’s so much to dissect.
@lulupain18 23 күн бұрын
That's how I felt reading Olga Dies Dreaming... and it was written by a Latina😅
@SarahBell 25 күн бұрын
I liked the TOG books 😊
@dreamhobbit 25 күн бұрын
I love watching your reviews!
@Shedlyhikey 25 күн бұрын
So every time I get done finishing a chapter. I will come here for a recap. So since I’m done with chapter one today, I will be watching this until the 7 minute and 22 second mark. I’ve never read phantasy like that so I’m excited to even type this . I really wanted a recap on what I read, because some people have the mind to phantasize and I don’t lol.
@Shedlyhikey 25 күн бұрын
lol I don’t have the mind to think in phantasy . People who grew up reading Harry Potter do tho.
@pauieeepau 26 күн бұрын
I've never see those tiktoks before, but why are half the skits just her se ually harrassing her boss? And the baby voice🤨 I've heard people describe the plot and its holes, so it's def not for me. I like unconvential superhero stories, like deconstructions and satires or sentai and magic girl variants, but I think I'll stick to the webcomics that fit my tastes.
@elizabethashley42 26 күн бұрын
FULLY agree with your rant about forced nicknames. I don't understand how people see the intentional disrespect and its consequential setting up of a pattern of ignoring consent as somehow cute or romantic.
@confusedpozole406 28 күн бұрын
This is exactly how I felt about Kuang’s Poppy Wars. That book was really bad, not the worst thing in the world but everyone was saying that it was the best thing in the world. And it was…not good? Like I was so baffled and confused about why everyone loved this book. After that I honestly never take recommendations from booktubers or tiktokers because it baffles me how they didn’t see the obvious problems with this book from a narrative standpoint
@jaclynholland-strauss7054 Ай бұрын
Am I unable to count or are there 9 books here, not 10? I didn't see anyone address this. Which makes me think I'm crazy!
@mynameismarines 29 күн бұрын
The 10th book is the one covered under boycott that I talk about in this video.
@jaclynholland-strauss7054 29 күн бұрын
@@mynameismarines Sorry, I totally missed that!
@vincruzzz Ай бұрын
I really like watching you reviewing overhyped books. 😂
@vincruzzz Ай бұрын
"I dont even really understand at this point why like the big villain was villaining" this made me laugh so hard 😂 I dont have the intension to read this book now.
@jacobliley8854 Ай бұрын
This review completely resonates with my thoughts so far. It's so frustrating because we know, thanks to Poppy War, that R.F Kuang CAN do great character work. But in Babel they all fell flat for me
@aureliadiwu_cotofan Ай бұрын
I’m already half through the novel and I have to say that I don't understand why the book even won any awards. I mean the concept itself is very interesting and innovative and I also enjoyed the thorough research the author had done for the translation study necessary for the plot, but in terms of novel writing itself, the characterisation is horrible and it literally makes the most basic mistakes of "telling" rather than "showing". Moreover, as you also mentioned here, there are far too many footnotes to the novel and they are not just defamililiratity notes but plot complementary notes telling the backgroud stories of these characters. I'm really shocked that the bar of publishing nowadays is this low. The subplot of the story should be woven into the character budiling and showed to us not told by the author. Moreover, there are a lot of abrupt jump of narrative, simply because the author probably doesnt want to wast her time write in details. The depiction of the bond of the 4 students are also super cringy at the beginning of the story. Like when they were disucssing some kind of smelll of pear they smelt in the room of Victorie, and the author just wrote suddenly Robin felt he loves his friends so much. I'm like ????? Why and how?? The discussion of pear smell is so lame....
@texanpondue Ай бұрын
I just had to read this for a book club. I agree with most of your points, but am beholden to point out that the "good" character, Tatianna, is also POC. Not that it's easy to find out, because the author doesn't do a great job of describing her characters. You have to piece it together as you read.
@cj1986x Ай бұрын
I appreciate this review. I read this book after watching the TV series based on it. I liked this TV series. Hated the book. It's been so long since I read it that I don't remember specifics of why I didn't like but that I really didn't like it definitely stayed with me!
@SissouLoveVideo Ай бұрын
Kate is the best ! Did you read their knew "novella" series about Kate ? It's reallyyy good !
@tonigonzalez1515 Ай бұрын
I thought it was a me issue. I also had trouble absorbing any info on this. I was trying to think back on what happened and couldn't remember a lot of it. Also, Perseus and Odysseus are not gods in Greek mythology... But they were gods in this story. She probably should have done more research
@riagupta2735 Ай бұрын
This book made me - a zutara hater - feel bad for zutara to be compared to this 😂
@zinaak4194 Ай бұрын
THANK YOUUUUUU!!! You were able to word all my frustrations with this book, and I appreciate it cause you are so much more polite than I ever could be. I was so excited to read a book about (de)colonialism and language, and was SO disappointed by where the story lead me. I must admit that I hold books that are everything I love "on paper" to much higher standards than others, and that's also not fair. Great video! Glad to have found your channel :)
@froggyentity Ай бұрын
I agree with absolutely everything you just said. Like you, I started reading the book series because I loved the games. And I loved the first 2 short story books, but as soon as I started reading the large story, I started loosing interest because way too much politics and not nearly enough monster hunting. In the end though, I couldn't even finish the book series because the author's portrayal of women was so poor and at times awful that I couldn't read it anymore.
@alaiar.m.4941 Ай бұрын
Is she actually part indigenous or is it how "mestizo" and yt latinx claim to be indigenous (which is not accurate and erases indigenous people living in LatinoAmerica
@pettyella6607 Ай бұрын
The Unmapping sound so interesting!!!!
@TheUniqueen999 Ай бұрын
Tbh The Phantom Tollbooth was my childhood, but I looked up Stardust and it's a romance, which is one of my least favorite genres but if the reason behind the plot happening wasn't because of love I'd probably read it
@Lilthecat-lj7qo Ай бұрын
Okay, this makes me irrationally mad, but this book is just adult, gender-swapped to how to train your dragon but with magic. Similarities include: - both Hiccup and Violet are physically disabled (sure, Hiccup only looses his leg at the end of the first movie, but there are a ton of sequels) - both toothless and the baby dragon have a physical disability that stops them from flying (although toothless can fly with his prosthetic). - they both have a harsh, militaristic parent in a leadership position, and they both clash with this parent. - they both have a missing/deceased parent that is kind and gentle like them (yes, Hiccup's mother reappears, but she did not raise him and he thought she was dead for most of his life.) - they're both supposed to be booksmart. - they both have gruffer love interests. - they both have a rare dragon/dragons. - the dragon naming conventions of fourth wing are a shoddy copy of httyd's dragon names. (i.e. nightfury, rumblehorn, hiddeous zippleback, vs morningstar tail, sword tail, daggertail. - the violent societal conventions are challenged by the main character. - there are dragons and dragon riders. - there's a romance (no smut is still romance, Hiccup and Astrid are absolutely dating) - the dragons have a hierarchy separate from humans. - the dragons are hostile to the humans (Edit: I thought of some more)
@niciswandering1576 Ай бұрын
1. your laugh is so cute!!! 2. UGH such a good point comparing collins world building to Yarros to explain lack of emotional connection to the people and the situations in fourth wing!!
@fredfredricksen2616 Ай бұрын
Guess who doesn't care what your opinion is?
@mynameismarines Ай бұрын
You don’t care sooooo much you had to leave this comment. Uh huh. Yeah, I believe you.
@Erdosign Ай бұрын
It's kind of funny to me that the publisher shares a name with a scathingly anti-capitalist short story.
@vielgluck09 Ай бұрын
You have articulated the struggles I am having so well 😭 I wanted to like it (my copy was gifted by a friend who loved it) but I can't get through that first 30%
@toyosibee.mp3 Ай бұрын
It feels like this book and Chang were funneled through from protodraft to published novel without anyone on her publisher's team actually reading the full book. The prose issues, the repetition, the messy copyediting-all these things speak to this being a rush job, compounded by the fact that this was a debut author.
@abbyodelson Ай бұрын
I read a lot of fanfiction. Like A LOT. And above almost any single other trope or theme that I hate to the bottom of my heart, is the "I'm only gay for this ONE person." Sexuality is fluid, as a queer person myself I know this, but that trope makes me DNF immediately.
@miyayume_eclectic_dream Ай бұрын
I watched because I am interested in Annie Bot and wanted to hear your experience.
@zach4008 Ай бұрын
lol Red Rising is great, don't listen to this person
@mynameismarines Ай бұрын
Right and they should listen to you for sure
@NotYourCitizenAnymore Ай бұрын
Holy crap someone on KZfaq finally outlined what I hate about Red Rising! Thank you!